Authority on managing cultural diversity
Fons Trompenaars co founded the Centre for International Business Studies, in Amsterdam, now known as Trompenaars Hampden-Turner, an innovative centre of excellence for intercultural management issues.
His mission is to help improve the global effectiveness of organizations. He does this through a process of helping companies recognize cultural differences, their causes and implications, then learn to value and respect those differences before finally turning these once ‘insurmountable problems’ into real competitive advantages.
He also serves as a visiting professor for the international M.B.A. program at the Erasmus University-Rotterdam School of Management. Before joining CIBS he worked for the Royal Dutch/Shell Group. Fons' acclaimed book ‘Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business’ was named Book of the Year by the Order of Experts and Consultants on Organization (OOA), a Dutch management organization. He also co-authored ‘Seven Cultures of Capitalism’ with Charles Hampden-Turner. Fons consults with many leading companies worldwide; in 1991 he received the International Professional Practice Area Research Award by the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD).
A natural motivator, Fons’ presentations are lively and interactive combining an element of fun with real insights that provoke and stimulate.